Fundraising Weekend

This weekend we were a part of 3 different fundraisers. Friday night we were part of Donnelly College’s Fund-a-Scholar. It was a rather fancy affair held at an historical air museum. A catered dinner and open bar. We were able to go and enjoy the evening before helping with cleanup. They managed to raise the $300,000 they needed to fill the gap between their income and expenses, which was amazing. People were donating $10,000 at a time. 

On Saturday night I worked at Bishop Ward’s Auction, which was cool. In previous years, the auction has been held at a rather fancy hotel with everything in one room. This year, to cut expenses, they decided to host the event at the school. This means the teachers spent about half the day on Friday (no school for the students) setting up. Well, it paid off because it looked pretty good Saturday night. There were a couple hiccups in the evening (trying to make students be social and welcoming is a little difficult), but overall it was a lovely event. Probably the best part was hanging out with my fellow teachers. Once we got off duty we were able to enjoy ourselves. We spectated the live auction (they talk so fast and it’s such a detailed system!), shared some fried food (yes, they did hire a food truck for the end of the night), and then left. They are a great group of people. I could not have asked for a more supportive and wonderful work community. 

Sunday we volunteered at the parish picnic. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the food was delicious. We had the opportunity to eat with Fr. Steve, who is an absolute riot and tells the best stories. He made up a song to the tune of the closing hymn of Mass about burgers and hot dogs. We helped the parish clean-up after the picnic, which resulted in us bringing home a rather large box of leftovers. The generosity of this community is boundless. 

Call to family, community and participation

For our unit on call to family, community, and participation (a theme of Catholic social teaching) we had our students interview some teachers in the building about their families. We did this as a sort of time-filler (which I’ll explain in a moment), but it was actually a pretty powerful exercise for the students. I think as students, especially in grade school and high school, we don’t usually recognize our teachers as actual people. We sort of assume that they live in the school and spend all their time with the other teachers talking about education things. We usually don’t question what their personal or social lives look like, and we certainly don’t wonder about their backgrounds and histories. This exercise made our students inquire about specifically those topics. It was great to see their responses. They all seemed to have a good time interviewing their teachers and liked reporting back to everyone the interesting information they discovered. I think also, on some level, this experience puts them on more equal footing with the teachers. They feel more like adults because they are respected and valued enough to be trusted with this sensitive information. 

As a side note, someone PLEASE write something about the theological values of family. We had such a hard time with this lesson because there was NOTHING out there on the theological value of family. There was a ton of stuff on marriage, even a little bit on parenting, but not an ounce on children’s role in a family. How can we discuss the call to family, when the Church doesn’t really take the time to talk about it? Any ideas on ways to engage high school students in the idea of the family?

Semantics

I am a huge fan of retreats. I started attending in grade school, continued in high school (shout out to TEC and Kairos), and became a leader on many in college, even co-creating a weekend. I think the thing I like most about retreats is the intensive, intentional time devoted to deep questions, often focusing on faith or personal experiences. It’s one of the few places left in our world that people are willing to be fully vulnerable. I also love the community created in retreats. The personal openness fostered in retreat settings forges deep bonds quickly, ones lasting lifetimes. 

Perhaps this is why I care immensely about the content of retreats. On Mon. Sept. 23 the seniors at Bishop Ward had their first retreat (they have another one in the spring). I had no idea what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t what I experienced. Don’t get me wrong, the retreat was a lovely break from their everyday routine. They got to be outside, share a meal together, there was a talk and small group discussion, games, and a Mass. However, nothing about the retreat seemed to sponsor vulnerability; no deep and lasting bonds formed. Now I understand that experience may be difficult to implement in a day, but I think we should at least try. Or perhaps we should name this day something else. Whatever the case is, the objectives need to be clearly defined. If the purpose was just to allow the seniors a day off of school in the name of fellowship and theology, great. That was accomplished. However, if the purpose was supposed to foster some sort of theological or religious development, we should probably reconsider the schedule for the day. 

The Nature of a Sunday

As long as I can remember, Sundays have always been low key days. Growing up we went to Mass, had a nice family brunch, took some time to read or maybe play games. In college, Sundays were reserved for Mass and intensive homework. Strangely, here I find my Sundays to be rather busy. Today is a great example. We had a brief house meeting in the morning, went to Mass, and had brunch with Jesuits (always a treat :) Then I biked to the Plaza Art Fair and hung out there for about a half hour. I don’t usually find that much joy in art. I can appreciate good art, but it’s not something I can spend more than a minute or two with. The Plaza Art Fair was great because it included live music, which I absolutely love. I lucked out and caught the beginning of a local band that just did a couple covers, but really had a great sound. Biked back to the house, grabbed a quick shower and headed over to Rockhurst to Skype with the family (my house doesn’t have internet, so we head over the University when the Web calls). A quick chat with them and it was back to the house to leave for the KC Care Clinic fundraiser. There was a silent auction and food at this gorgeous house in the historic district of KC. We, naturally, were volunteering. In the 4.5 hours we were there I drove a Mercedes-Benz and a golf cart. The whole story is sort of long (maybe I’ll come back later and write it out), but basically the driveway was incredibly steep and there also was a limited amount of convenient parking, therefore I was tasked with picking people up and bringing them to the house. The golf cart didn’t work at first, which is why I drove the Benz. All in all, it was SO FUN. I really enjoyed it. After that, a brief stop at the grocery store for our week’s rations and back to the house to prepare for the work week. Super fun, but so busy. 

The PTCs

Today was a pretty big day. After 5 weeks of class, we held parent-teacher conferences. I really haven’t been nervous about them in the past month. I think I was actually dreading the 12 hour day more than the actual conferences. However, as 12:30pm approached, I grew increasingly anxious. I’ve always been a pretty good orator. I am able to express myself well verbally and can usually think quickly on the spot. The part that made me anxious was parent impressions. I look quite young, and I wasn’t sure how I would be received by parents (imagine- What is this kid doing teaching my children?! I pay a lot of money for this education!). Luckily, I had no need to fear. I met with about 6 sets of parents throughout the night and they were all very pleasant. Some of the conversations were very short and consisted only of praise and compliments for a student. Some were more lengthy and involved talking about what a student struggles with and how we could work together to help support the student. By the end of the night I was exhausted, but I also felt affirmed in my capabilities as an educator. The parents clearly treated me as a competent authority and did not show any sign of misgivings regarding their children’s education. 

Fun little inconveniences

Today I learned that even super little things can affect an entire day. Aimee and I work across the street from each other in KCK. It would be atrocious to get there via public transport, so Donnelly College (Aimee’s placement) is kind enough to provide us with a ’98 Jeep Cherokee to carry us to and from work. The Jeep is functional, but apparently only barely so. They’ve had significant problems with it in past years that, while never dangerous, were incredibly inconvenient. I love driving and Aimee isn’t stellar with directions, so we mutually agreed that I would be the driver in our daily treks. This worked fine until today. I needed to be at a meeting for work and because my only source of transportation is the Jeep, I planned to use that. Well, apparently that wasn’t so kosher with Donnelly. Aimee called me several hours before my meeting, and her supervisor informed me that Aimee was the only one who was supposed to be driving the Jeep because she is the only one insured. Donnelly acknowledged my need for transportation for work related purposes, and since Bishop Ward is paying for half our gas, they kindly offered to insure me on the Jeep as well. I say this very sarcastically now, but really they were very kind about it. I was just irritated that there was not foresight enough to anticipate this need. Fortunately, I was able to reschedule my meeting and act as navigator for Aimee, so everything worked out. It just really ticked me off in a really quite unjustifiable way. 

Fun fact

Today I learned that a 70 year old priest once walked from Kansas City to Chile. How’s that for a fun fact?

Update: Fr. Bob Hentzen passed away on Oct. 8, 2013 at age 77.